Pyramiding of High Grain Weight With Stripe Rust and Leaf Rust Resistance in Elite Indian Wheat Cultivar Using a Combination of Marker Assisted and Phenotypic Selection.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important cereal crop globally as well as in India and yield improvement programs encounter a strong impediment from ever-evolving rust pathogens. Hence, durable rust resistance is always a priority trait for wheat breeders globally. Grain weight, represented as thousand grain weight (TGW), is the most important yield-contributing trait in wheat. In the present study high TGW has been transferred into two elite Indian wheat cultivars PBW343 and PBW550 from a high TGW genotype, Rye selection 111, selected from local germplasm. In the background of PBW343 and PBW550, an increase in TGW upto 27.34 and 18% was observed, respectively (with respect to recipient parents), through conventional backcross breeding with phenotypic selections in 3 years replicated RBD trials. Resistance to leaf rust and stripe rust has been incorporated in the high TGW version of PBW550 through marker assisted pyramiding of stripe rust resistance gene Yr15 using marker Xuhw302, and a pair of linked leaf rust and stripe rust resistance genes Lr57-Yr40 using marker Ta5DS-2754099_kasp23. Improved versions of PBW550 with increased TGW ranging from 45.0 to 46.2 g (up to a 9% increase) and stacked genes for stripe and leaf rust resistance have been developed. This study serves as proof of utilizing conventional breeding and phenotypic selection combined with modern marker assisted selection in improvement of important wheat cultivars as a symbiont of conventional and moderan techniques.